My New Years’ resolution in 2010 was to run 100 miles every month for the year. Somehow, I was able to keep myself motivated thru the year to reach it. But came January and February of 2011, I started losing motivation. I was lacking a goal.
So, I gave myself this weird idea – I will re-learn how to run all over again by switching to barefoot running.
Easier said than done!! In March 2011, in those really cold days, I started running literally without any foot protection on grass. Eventually got myself some tips from a coach, watched a lot of videos, got help from my doctor, graduated to barefoot shoes and was able to run on roads again.
After 18 long months, I am back to where I was! Posted 100 miles for August. Arguably, I picked a convenient month with 31 days and I need some time off the road now to let the lower calf muscles gain their strength back. All the same, one milestone reached in the journey back to learning how to run anew again.

Almost to celebrate that, ran into two of my old running buddies – Samantha and Lara before running. It was great catching up with them after a long time….

So the Starbucks lady asked me what my name was after taking my order. I told her most people call me Hey You 🙂 And that is what she wrote! It was really funny when the other lady made my drink and yelled “One tall extra hot latte for …. … Hey You?” Awesome!!!

Yesterday, I did not stretch after running. Instead, sat and had Starbucks coffee. Paid for it moment I tried getting up. The right glute and hamstring had completely stiffened up.
Walking has become onerous, let alone running elegantly.
Put in 5 miles. Very uncomfortable run. The left leg had to overcompensate resulting in the left knee complaining 🙁
I just want my red wine now and forget about the run 🙂

Eight year old Nikita was describing how they played the game of Life the previous evening when I picked her up from her sleepover. And suddenly asked me – “What is honeymoon? Do you put honey on the moon?”. Desperately trying to stifle a laugh, I tried to explain “When you get married, after the wedding ceremony you will go with your husband for a vacation to a nice place like Hawaii and that is called honeymoon”. She thought for a second said “Ok. I will let him pay for it”. There was no attempt to stifle any laughter this time 🙂 as I thought “Man, the apple never falls too far from the tree” 🙂

Had quite a scare this morning. Went for a 10K run in Alpharetta. I was running on asphalt keeping my eyes ahead to see if any oncoming car was on my lane. However, that meant I was not watching where I was stepping. Managed to stumble on something. I was coming downhill pretty fast. The next five seconds was a huge struggle for me to stop from falling down. Essentially I was bent over, head first, desperately speeding up my cadence to get my balance back. I wish somebody had videotaped that. I bet you I looked like an ostrich running for life 🙂

On a side note, this practice of looking for problems on the longer horizon and not paying attention to the immediate has gotten me into trouble before. Once, in Dallas, I was late for a meeting and was speeding to get to it. All the while, I kept a sharp eye for cops on either side of the road in the horizon. In the process, I conveniently passed a cop car also speeding on the road. Well, one of us got pulled over by the other using the long arm of the law 🙂